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The Saga of Place Names of Andamans

Place names have always caught our fascination to the extent that there are people and communities who traditionally attach place names with their personal names. Andaman Islands also throw up a rich variety of place names ranging from the indigenous native names to the names kept by colonizers and settlers.
In fact place names tell us a lot about the culture and priorities of the people residing there.
Starting with native names kept by the indigenous people of these islands, which are now a minority in their own land. Place names like ‘Putatang’, ‘Jirkatang’, ‘karmatang’ and ‘phultang’ are all indigenous names, which have stood the test of times. Notice that, all these names end in ‘tang’ which is actually a modified version of a Great Andamanese word ‘tong’ meaning ‘tree’.

Great Andamanese who inhabited this whole mass of islands were people who were close to nature and their life was symbiotically connected with the surrounding ecosystem. The usual custom of naming places by these islanders primarily consisted, naming the place after the abundant natural resources of that particular area.
Therefore we come across names such as ‘maro phong’ (literally honey-hole) where honey was found in abundance. Similarly names ending in ’tong’ indicated that the place is abundant in that particular flora.
Moreover place names also indicated the unique topographical feature of the camping area of the indigenous community. Therefore we have ‘raetphor’ (literally big-bamboo-small bamboo), an area near today’s Mayabander. Likewise an obsolete name like ‘bol phong’ was used by the Great Andamanese to indicate the region of present Long Island.
It is not to say that all the indigenous groups shared common place names. The reality is that each hunter-gatherer community maintained a repertoire of place names according to their relationship to the region and area inhabited by them.In fact we can still find a variety of names kept by Jarawa people for the region they inhabit.

In E.H. Man’s dictionary of ‘Bea’ language (a southern Great andamanese language), we come across various place names across the length and breadth of Andaman islands. An important thing to note down here is that ‘Bea’ people who inhabited the southern Andamans had provided place names even for the regions going beyond the northern limits of Andaman Islands. But that does not mean that they had already coined all place names. The truth is that, when they accompanied the British colonizers in their Island expeditions, they were asked to tell the place name, and the clever ‘Bea’ men instantly gratified them by keeping a new place name by looking at the visual and topographical landscape.

The native islanders usually kept themselves confined to their respective territory. When the British colonizers coaxed them to come out of their abode and took them for various island expeditions, it also gave rise to strengthening of mythology and folktales in the communities. For example when ‘Bea’ people were shown the ‘Saddle point’ the second highest hill in Andamans, they were convinced that it is none other than ‘pulugachang’ (the abode of the first man).

The traditional place naming tradition of ‘Jero’, another Great Andamanese group is equally interesting. ‘Jero’ who were primarily seacoast dwellers usually kept place names after the seascape. For example we find place names like ‘toro-taec’(literally leaf of turtles) for a place near Mayabander implying that turtles were in abundance there.
‘Jero’ who were so fond of turtle meat to the extent that they would even risk their own life for hunting turtles, found it wi
ttingly suitable to keep this name for the same area.
Also their name for Port Blair, the administrative capital of colonizers, ‘lao-ter-nyo’ (literally ‘house of evils’) sounds equally appropriate cause it reminds us of the misery Great Andamanese were brought to by their sojourn in Port Blair.

This saga of naming places by different people did not stop just with the extinction of the Great Andamanese, but people of all hues and cries gave all colorful names to places in Andamans. Be it Burmese Borang and Bajota of Mayabander area, Webi of Karen settlers, Baul Dera and Haridas Katai of Bengali settlers, Padnabhpuram and Tirur of Tamils, and Birsanagar and Hanspuri of Ranchi settlers.
Amazingly the new settlers of the islands are also adopting the practice of naming places after natural ecosystems. We now see place names such as Sagwan Nallah (literally creek of Sagwan trees), and Khatta Khadi (literally sour mangroves).

But the major place name givers were non-other British colonizers. They coined most of the English place names, be it Port Blair after the Archibald Port Blair or Atlanta point after the sailing vessel.
This list and explanations are short, but which I hope serves to illustrate some of the facets of place names and the many associations they bring about. The Historical aspect of place names comes about when one try’s to find out why and who were the people or events that led to the genesis of those names.

Quite an informative article. I remember there were more than one Ranchi Basti there: Ranchi Basti, New Ranchi Basti.

At the Great Nicobar or Campbell Bay we come across a peculiar naming convention. You have 46-Kilometer point, 35-Kilometer point etc.

In my book of short stories, I have set all my 21 stories in A & N Islands. Last May I got it released by His Excellency the Governor of Orissa. The book has a heart-warming foreword from Mr Ruskin Bond.